14th-st-soapbox:

Why The Titties Cannot Come Back Until FOSTA-SESTA Goes Away

It’s the reason for the porn ban across the internet, it’s the reason Net Neutrality is gone, and it has, as the sex worker community tried to tell us, harmed sex workers and doesn’t help trafficking go away at all–particularly because of the vague wording and broad definitions, all it really does is ban porn, harrass the queer community, and censor all talk about sexuality into silence–and silence does not make safety. There is now a study about its effects, and sex workers weren’t consulted or listened to about its flaws.

If you want the internet to stop censoring queer content, FOSTA-SESTA has to go.

If you want tumblr and other websites to have porn again, FOSTA-SESTA has to go.

If you want algospeak to stop being the norm, FOSTA-SESTA HAS TO GO.

There is NOTHING that tumblr staff can do without this law being gone.

There is NOTHING that any moderator, website, or app can do without Net Neutrality being reinstated and iron-clad again.

Did you all forget what caused the porn ban in the first place? It was not a random decision every company made overnight.

It was FOSTA-SESTA.

Freedom of speech is called Net Neutrality online, and until 2018, Net Neutrality was sacrosanct.

We must have Net Neutrality back if we are to have the freedom to speak online.

If you are queer, you must fight for Net Neutrality. If you have opinions about anything, you must fight for your right to say them. FOSTA-SESTA TOOK THAT FROM YOU. TOOK IT FROM US ALL.

If you want things to change, don’t whine to staff on tumblr, don’t boycott Tiktok.

you must get political. you must organise to remove FOSTA-SESTA from the books. You must clamour, and holler, and write your politicians and raise up the voices of sex workers and VOTE to protect your free speech.

Pornography and sex work are inextricable from freedom of speech. The right of pornography and sex work to exist is inextricable from the rights of queer folks. If you do not fight to protect your right to ‘dirty books’ and uphold ‘rule 34’ they will come after YOU next. They already are coming after queers just like they always do when a ban on porn is involved! It will escalate until it comes after EVERYONE.

I cannot emphasise enough that all this censorship increasing since 2018 is connected to the porn ban. It is the same oppressive and harmful legislation causing it.

GET RID OF FOSTA-SESTA.

It is harming sex workers, even killing them.

It is harming trafficking victims.

It is harming all of us, queer and straight, adults and children, it is harming everybody by taking away our freedom of speech.

Get rid of it.